Doc Schuchart

SIKESTON - R.P. "Doc" Schuchart Jr., 83, of Sikeston Route 4, died at 3:15 p.m. July 8, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

Born Jan. 17, 1919, at Union, son of the late Rudolph Peter and Minnie Catherine Hanneken Schuchart Sr., he was a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and served as a heavy mortar crewman in the Infantry, HQ Company, 4th Tank Battalion. He fought in the battles of Tunisian, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Northern Apennines and PO Valley. Schuchart, who was discharged in July 1945, was awarded five Bronze Stars for those battles and the American Defense Service Ribbon, European-African Middle Eastern Theatre Campaign Ribbon and six Overseas Bars. He returned to Sikeston and was a self-employed farmer and dairyman for 33 years, retiring in 1978. A member and past president of the American Dairy Association District 13 and also the Southeast Missouri Milk Producers Association, he was a past board member of the Paducah (Ky.) Division of Dairymen Inc. and member of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

On Dec. 30, 1961, in Sikeston, he married Alberta M. Kyle who survives of the home.

Other survivors include: one son, Trent A. Schuchart of Lawrence, Kan.; two daughters, Theresa Browning of Lawrence and Lisa Starks of Murray, Ky.; one brother, S.R. "Wes" Schuchart of Sikeston; four sisters, Martha Sachs, Ada Johnson and Stella Foster of Arlington, Va., and Alice Howard of Sun Valley, Calif.; and two grandchildren.

Three brothers preceded him in death.

Visitation is from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church with the Rev. James E. Seyer of Cape Girardeau, officiating.

Burial will follow in Garden of Memories Cemetery.

The Missouri Military Honor Guard will conduct graveside military rites at Garden of Memories Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be: Dan Jennings, Paul Schuchart, Emil Schuchart, Tom Howard, Clayton Nichols and Dan Schuchart.